Sonia Sotomayor

President Barack Obama nominated federal judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York for the Supreme Court, positioning the longtime federal jurist to become the first Hispanic member of the nation's highest court.

Sotomayor, first appointed to the federal district court for the Southern District of New York by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1991, sits on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. She was elevated to the circuit court, one of the nation's most prestigious, by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1998.

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